01
Attention • Performance • Cognitive Science
Avadhāna: what can a classical culture of attention ask modern neuroscience?
Avadhāna traditions bring together sustained attention, divided attention, working memory, retrieval, interference control, creativity, and performance under cognitive load. Before these capacities are translated into experiments, the tradition itself needs careful documentation: terminology, training, task structure, practitioner experience, and historical context.
Status: Open for collaboration
Expertise sought: Avadhānis, Sanskrit/literary scholars, cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists
Question for collaborationCould Sanskrit scholars, Avadhānis, psychologists, and neuroscientists jointly define a rigorous research framework before attempting measurement?
Permalink to this question →
02
Smṛti • Memory • Philosophy of Mind
What does smṛti mean across Sanskrit intellectual traditions?
Modern neuroscience uses multiple categories of memory. Sanskrit traditions also discuss remembering, recognition, recollection, impressions, attention, knowledge, and continuity of experience — but their terms cannot simply be mapped onto modern categories.
Status: Open for collaboration
Expertise sought: Philologists, Sanskrit philosophers, historians of ideas, cognitive scientists
Question for collaborationCould philologists and cognitive scientists build a source-based map of smṛti and related terms before asking where genuine conceptual correspondences exist?
Permalink to this question →
03
Recitation • Language • Neuroplasticity
What does long-duration Sanskrit recitation train?
Recitation can involve phonological precision, breath regulation, rhythm, sequential memory, error monitoring, auditory-motor integration, and years of deliberate practice. These features make traditional recitation a rich human model, but strong claims require better phenotyping and careful controls.
Status: Open for collaboration
Expertise sought: Recitation teachers, linguists, cognitive neuroscientists, auditory-motor researchers
Question for collaborationWhat textual, pedagogical, and practitioner knowledge is needed to design credible studies of recitation, language, memory, and neuroplasticity?
Permalink to this question →
04
Mahābhārata • End of Life • Human Experience
Can Bhīṣma help generate better questions about cognition near the end of life?
Bhīṣma’s final episodes contain narrative material concerning attention, memory, pain, meaning, devotion, agency, and conscious orientation toward death. These are not modern clinical observations, but they may preserve a sophisticated phenomenology worth studying on its own terms.
Status: Open for collaboration
Expertise sought: Mahābhārata scholars, medical humanities, palliative care, cognition researchers
Question for collaborationCan Sanskrit scholarship, medical humanities, palliative care, and neuroscience together identify what is textually present and what questions it raises for modern research?
Permalink to this question →
05
Daily Practice • Behavior • Systems
Nityakarma and Sandhyopāsanā: how should repeated daily practice be studied?
Daily practices may combine timing, ritual sequence, posture, recitation, attentional cues, social identity, hygiene, reflection, and behavioral regularity. Studying such systems requires more than isolating one mantra or one physiological variable.
Status: Open for collaboration
Expertise sought: Ritual scholars, practitioners, behavioral scientists, physiology and health researchers
Question for collaborationCould scholars of ritual, behavioral scientists, and health researchers develop a faithful description of the practice before testing which components — if any — influence measurable outcomes?
Permalink to this question →
06
Ekādaśī • Self-regulation • Behavioral Health
What is the right scientific question to ask about Ekādaśī?
Ekādaśī practices vary widely across regions, communities, and individuals. They may involve fasting, dietary restriction, devotional practice, altered routines, intention, and social meaning. Treating all of this as a single intervention would be scientifically weak.
Status: Open for collaboration
Expertise sought: Dharma/text scholars, practitioners, nutrition researchers, behavioral scientists
Question for collaborationCan textual scholars, practitioners, nutrition researchers, and behavioral scientists first define the practice space and then identify tractable questions about adherence, self-regulation, and physiology?
Permalink to this question →
07
Terminology • Translation • Research Infrastructure
Can we build a Sanskrit–Hindi–English lexicon for mind, cognition, and human experience?
Terms such as manas, buddhi, citta, smṛti, dhyāna, saṃskāra, prajñā, and vijñāna carry histories and context-dependent meanings. Casual one-word translations can create false scientific equivalences.
Status: Open for collaboration
Expertise sought: Sanskrit scholars, philosophers, lexicographers, cognitive scientists, translators
Question for collaborationWould Sanskrit scholars across traditions help build a citation-rich, context-sensitive lexicon that scientists can use without flattening the source traditions?
Permalink to this question →
08
SBKB • Medicine • Knowledge Infrastructure
Which biomedical observations in Sanskrit literature deserve systematic study?
Sanskrit literature contains observations about the body, illness, behavior, cognition, aging, diet, environment, suffering, and human flourishing. The first task is not to declare them scientifically validated; it is to locate, classify, contextualize, and evaluate them responsibly.
Status: Open for collaboration
Expertise sought: Sanskritists, historians of medicine, clinicians, scientists, data and ontology specialists
Question for collaborationWhich corpora should be examined first, and what minimum philological and scientific standards should govern a Sanskrit Biomedical Knowledge Base?
Permalink to this question →